Mecum Auctions has been involved with collector cars for almost three decades now, growing from a small family business to selling roughly 20,000 lots per year. In addition to top-dollar automobiles, Mecum also offers vintage motorcycles, collectible road art, and believe it or not, tractors. But you and I don’t really care about all that other stuff – we’re in it for the cars, from cutting-edge performance machines to ironclad muscle cars, antique classics to no-frills racers. Thankfully, Mecum has the entire spread on tap. The auction house averages more than one event per month, but one of the biggest is in California for Monterey Car Week. Roughly 600 vehicles are slated to hit the block for 2016, and we’ve got some of the most interesting of them profiled right here.

Highlighting the lineup for Monterey is the Modern Speed Collection, a host of ultra-high-end speed-mobiles from the present day. Mecum calls it “the apex of 21st Century automotive performance,” and picking through the offerings, I’m inclined to agree. Think rare, gorgeous, and absurdly quick.

TopSpeed will be on the scene this year, bringing you all the latest. Read on for a taste of what’s in store.

Update 08-20-2016 5:00 P.M. PST We’re on the scene at Mecum and have updated this preview with a welcome video. Check it out in the preview below.
Continue reading to learn more about the 2016 Mecum Monterey Auction.

The Scotsman arrived in 1957, in a time when the Studebaker-Packard alliance was still struggling to recover financially after a couple of disastrous years with slow sales and numerous disputes within the company. Fearing bankruptcy, Studebaker-Packard decided to no longer try and meet Ford,GM, and Chrysler head-on on the market, but compete with low-priced cars instead. Using the existing Studebaker Champion’s bodies, the company created the Scotsman, a no-frills, no-nonsense car that had minimal convenience features and very few options to choose from. It was so spartan that its name was based on the reputation of Scottish frugality. The Scotsman was offered as a two- and four-door sedan, as well as a two-door wagon.

Built until 1958, the Scotsman was an unexpected success. Studebaker sold more than 9,000 units for the 1957 model year, against initial predictions of 4,000 examples. Its success continued in 1958, when it outsold the Champion, Commander, and President models combined. But, despite proving that Studebaker did not need to follow the flamboyant automotive trends of late 1950s, the Scotsman’s success wasn’t big enough to save the Studebaker-Packard alliance, which came to an end in 1962. Four years later, Studebaker was discontinued altogether after more than 50 years on the market.

2016 marks exactly 50 years since Studebaker was shut down completely, an event that calls for a closer look at some of the company’s most important models. Although far from fancy, the Scotsman Wagon was one of them, and we’re going to have a closer look at a rare model being sold by Mecum Auctions in August 2016.